Dark Moon (ManxMan)
Chapter 26

New year. New me.

Who ever the fuck came up with that shit deserves to be kicked in the balls, Colson thought to himself as he walks into the grocery store.

It's still cold as balls and it's only the third week of January. Colson aggressively grabs a shopping basket and began walking towards the aisle for cereal. Happiness and love makes you do things. Things that you once said you'll never do. Like going grocery shopping at seven in the morning.

For years, he had always heard the phrase New Year, New Me and not once did he think he'd be part of those people. For two reasons.

One being, he liked the way he was. And two being, he's perfect just the he was. It's simple. And yet, on the first, a couple of days ago, he had promised to get groceries for the house, instead of Aetos or Pytor.

He didn't account for Lytor's late night snacks. Nor did he account for his personal late night snack because Aetos can go on for days if he's really in the mood and even though he's twenty five, Colson, not matter what anyone says, is a growing boy.

This is the second time he's going shopping at seven in the morning. This is the last fucking time he's going shopping at seven am. The roosters were still asleep. Did Astor even have roosters? Werebunnies, yes.

Colson aggressively shoves four packs of Cheerios into the basket, four cartons of milk, two semi skimmed and two whole milk because the two vampires were a pain in the ass.

He was about to leave when someone comes to stand in front of him.

"Alphie, what bring you here?" Colson asked, tone dry. He was not in the mood to make niceities.

"Cobie wants mustard and plums, he had a dream." Erik says, raising the two packs he had in his hands. "I never thought I'd see you out and about before eleven."

"Yeah, well. New year, new me and some shit." Colson says as he steers away from the aisle. He heads for the frozen foods and grabbed two large pizzas, four shepherd's pie and two chicken pie.

"You almost done?" Erik asked and Colson shakes his head. He needed to get one more thing or he's actually going to snap at someone who doesn't deserve it.

"Ice cream and then I'm done." Colson tells Erik who nods. It doesn't take long to pay for everything he bought. They both walk out together, Erik never leaving his side. The alpha looked tired. Cobie was already five months along, his tummy big and round and anytime one of the pups kick, you could like see tiny prints. It had freaked Colson the first time he saw it.

"Can you tell Cobie I'll come by the see him in the afternoon? I need to catch up on sleep."

Erik nods, his movement albeit slowly. Since they were going in opposite directions and Colson had driven here, he waves the Alpha goodbye. Colson walks over to the car and pulls open the door. When he turns around, he sees Erik but the alpha was a long way ahead.

He leans back against the seat and drops the bags of stuff on the passenger's side. He pushed his hands through his hair and sighs. He has been feeling tired a lot and it wasn't just because Aetos keeps him up. It's something else. It feels like he's missing something. His two plus two is giving him five not four. He has had this feeling for months. The terrible feeling that something bad was going to happen. He just didn't know what. Or if he was just overthinking this. He looks down at his hands, the black lines were gone. He has also noticed that sometimes, Cobie remembered the black lines and sometimes he'd stare at Colson like he just sprouted another nose or something.

And his twin had also become hostile. Behaviors that Colson was suspecting wasn't caused by pregnancy hormones. They were missing something. The attack rates in Astir was steadily rising and everyone was on guard. No one could describe what had hit them, only it was all black like a shadow and fast.

Colson rests his head against the steering wheel and took deep breaths. It's too early for dark thoughts. He shuts the door and starts the engine. He flips the radio on, scrolling through the channels before settling on Broke and Stupid by Joyner Lucas. He pulls out of the parking lot and heads home.

It takes four songs for him to get back home. He leaves the grocery bags in the car, only grabbing the fresh bacon he had gotten before walking into the house. He went shopping so one of the vampires would have to get off their asses and get the food.

"Babe." Aetos says as he walks up to Colson. The man was shirtless and had on a pair of sweatpants that Colson wants to tear off. It's no longer snowing but it's still cold as balls, it was fair Aetos got to walk around the house looking like it's summertime.

"I'm so tired." Colson moans, moving towards his boyfriend, he tossed the pack of bacon and wrapped his arms around Aetos' body, tucking his nose into the side of Aetos' neck. Aetos wasn't cold anymore, he was getting warmer by the day and it's one of Colson's favorite things. They hadn't decided what to do yet but Colson knows how to read. He had spent hours researching, even Cobie and Erik helped him with it.

A vampire's clock starts to tick when they meet their mate. Yes, he knows Aetos's heart has begun beating again. Other things were awakening too, his heat, Aetos' thirst for blood has practically shot from 100 to 20 percent and his taste buds have returned too. Hence all the food and the wonderful thing, was, the same thing was happening to Pytor too. There was still time to reverse all this if they wanted to but Colson wants Aetos to stay this way. He wanted them to grow old and kiss in front of children so they go ewwww.

"Want me to make you breakfast?" Aetos asks and Colson nods against his body, tightening his grip a bit.

"Where are the things you bought?" Aetos asks, amusement clear in his voice.

Colson sigh and looks up, pouting a bit at his boyfriend. Aetos closed the distance between them, pressing a chaste kiss to Colson's lips. It's crazy how you can go from feeling like shit to feeling a little bit like shit when the love of your life kisses you.

"It's in the car. I was too tired to bring it in."

"Why don't you take a seat and I'll get everything ready." Aetos says, pressing a kiss to Colson's forehead.

"I'm going to be in the kitchen." Colson replies, pressing a kiss to Aetos' chest before letting go. He blows his boyfriend a kiss before heading for the kitchen, he hops on one of the stools and waited. He was still dressed in his overly large thick grey wool coat, pajama bottoms, a ratty The Doors shirt, socks and boots. He just wanted to crawl back into bed, preferably with Aetos.

He decides to rest hi shead on his hands, maybe close his eyes for One Two Three secon- "WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

Colson jerks awake, turning in the direction of the voice, ready to tell Aetos he wasn't sleeping. He had been meditating. He stops short though when he sees he's not in the house anymore. Aw shit. No. it's too cold f- He paused. He doesn't feel cold.

He looks down at himself. He had on a black longsleeved shirt, black jeans, black socks and black shoes, he also has a gun holster on, two guns tucked into it, a larger one strapped across his back and a beanie on his head. He's immediately filled with dread as memories slam into him. He lifts his hands up and stared at them. He remembers Se Ju's 's face, he remembers the blood. He takes a staggering step back.

"It's always the same reaction every time." The voice says again.

"What do you want?"

"What does everyone want?" the voice says and Colson snorts loudly. He's hit with a burst of energy that sends him flying and falls to the ground harshly. "How do you always have something to say or express? Don't you know fear?" the voice asked and Colson wants to roll his eyes.

Every fucking time.

"Look, just stop whatever this is and go back to the pit you crawled out from." Colson says. All he wanted was to sleep. Was that too much to ask for?

"Get up. We have work to do."

"No." Colson says.

"Fine. I don't actually need you to walk." The voice says and before Colson could blink, he was being lifted off the floor by an invincible force. He struggles against it, kicking his legs but it's to no avail. Fuck. This.

"I think it's time begin the game. Let's see who'll replace poor little Colson." The voice said and Colson goes still. What did it mean? He tries to call out but it feels like something is weighing down his throat, it hurt to even think about talking. He blinks one, two, three times and the next thing he knows he's standing at the beach, Pytor and Toby in front of him.

He doesn't know how long he stands watching the two of them. All he knows is, he's watching Pytor press kisses all over Toby's face, their hands clasped together, the sunlight giving them this beautiful glow. It's a cute sight and it'd be even cuter if Colson could scream at Pytor and tell him to help.

"Love sucks. Love sucks." The voice says, tone dripping with anger.

"I can tell you it doesn't."

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"One day you hold the hand of the love of your life and the next thing you know, he's running into a burning building to help a child who was screaming for help." The voice says, tone changing from neutral to something lighter. It sounded like

a woman.

"I knew you two would defeat your father. I just had to bide my time before getting to you." The woman says and Colson looks around. There were a few other people on the beach but he doesn't know who it could be. They could be talking to him telepathically and it seemed like no one knew he was here.

He tests his theory by standing beside Toby and Pytor, he waves his hand and screams but no one hears him. He moves a bit, and tries to poke Pytor but it stopped halfway, like a glass was keeping his finger from touching Pytor's hand. If this was someone trying to make his life miserable because of the shit his father did, when he breaks free of this... spell. He's going to take his time with this bitch, he's going to make sure they die slowly.

"It's not going to work. Not unless I want it to."

Colson runs his hand through his hair. This woman has said a lot of things. She was going to do something. The child in the fire. Colson stills as he recalls one of his nightmares. He remembers the heat, remembers the tightening in his lungs. He remembers, coughing and trying to scream for help. He remembers his mother's body getting wrapped up in flames, he remembers Cobie screaming loudly.

He also remembers something black bursting through the room. He remembers someone or something grabbing his hand before part of the roof came down and crushed it.

Oh goddess!

"There's a popular saying that goes, the sins of the father have nothing to do with the children." Colson says and there's a loud snarl, loud and so close to his ear.

"IT'S NOT THE SINS OF THE FATHER! IT'S YOUR SIN!" The woman snarls, a blinding force pushing Colson to his ass again. He feels the fear creeping back up slowly but really, nothing scared him more than losing Cobie and Aetos. Oh goddess! Aetos!

He's going to be worried sick!

"Take out the rifle and shoot him!" The voice says and to his horror, Colson's hand's begin to move. He pulls off the gun, holds it tight in his hands and raises it to his eye, so he could look through the lens, aiming right at Pytor. "We've been giving them scares but not today. Today we hit a bit close to home."

Colson feels something solid on his arm, angling the gun away from Pytor to Toby who was giggling at something the vampire was saying.

"You don't get to be happy. No one around you gets to be happy." The while I'm not was not said but still rang out loud and clear. Colson feels the dread crawl up his spine, he wasn't sure what this woman had planned, all he knew was she was powerful.

"Don't do this." Colson begs. "Please."

"Shoot."

Colson cocks the gun and fires, the bullet going right in, hitting so so close to the heart. He watched, his eyes stinging with oncoming tears as Toby crumbles to the floor, hand pressed to his chest while Pytor holds on, he thinks the vampire's screaming, but he can't tell. He can only watch.

He falls on his knees, tears pouring out as he watched Pytor coughs out blood. He looks away, staring down at the gun in his hand.

"We have somewhere else to go." The voice says again and Colson shakes his head. No. he just doesn't want to go anywhere else. She can go fuck herself.

"Let's go." The voice says again, tone stern.

"No."

The voice laughs. "You keep forgetting I don't need you to walk to get to where you need to be." The voice says and suddenly there's a heavy weight on his shoulder and the next thing he knows, he's standing in the pack house. The dread triples. They had gotten past the front door. If she could get in, then Cobie wasn't safe! Erik wasn't! The pups! Gabriel!

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"We are not here for your brother." The voice says as they go up the steps. Thankfully, thry don't make the turn for Cobie and Erik's room and instead, they go all the way to the last floor. Past the room where Michel was locked in. They were heading for Gabriel.

"I've always hated the fact that wolves heal, you know. You cut and the skin seals itself back together." The voice says. "But this time, I have something special planned."

"I wont kill him."

"You're not in control of your limbs. You are my... puppet." The voice says with a cackle that sends a chill down Colson's back. The familiar weight appears on his shoulder and he's going through the door, one foot going in front of the other until he was standing in Gabriel's room.

He hasn't been in this room before, he had always passed by it but never actually entered. It was all soft with a raised bed with steps leading to it. Walk in closet and tasteful dressers. Gabriel was seated on the bed, dressed in a baby blue silk lingerie gown, a matching robe hanging off his body. He had a book in his hand and he was stroking the page.

"We are not killing him!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE A SAY!" The woman screams at me. This time she doesn't give a command but Colson's hands still move by themselves despite all his efforts to stop this, to end this. His hands cock the gun, fore finger pressed down on the trigger and the bullet hitting Gabriel in the chest, a few couple inches away from the heart.

Colosn hoped Gabriel would be able to pull out the bullet, heal and -

Gabriel starts coughing, blood spilling out of his mouth. Erik bursts into the room, knocking the door off the wall as he reached for Gabriel who had a hand pressed to his chest. Cobie waddled in after, trying to move faster but couldn't. He was dressed in sweatpants and a large shirt that must belong to Erik, his tummy looked twice the size Colson has seen from yesterday. His eyes, bright red.

Erik dug his claw into the hole where the bullet had gone through.

"NO!" Colson cries.

Gabriel looked like he was about to just give it up.

"You didn't like him." The woman said.

"Just because we weren't friends, doesn't mean I wanted him dead, you dumb fuck!" Colson screams and Cobie's head snapped up, like he had heard it. Colson runs up to his brother and tried to touch him but his hand goes through Cobie's skin.

All the hope he had, vanishes.

"it's just you and me now, puppet." The woman says again. "It's time to play, who'll save Colson."

There's a trail of black smoke coming out of the closet and Colson just stops. No one could see him, no once could replace him and he had a sinking feeling this woman wasn't going to let him go back like always. The game had already begun, she said.

The smoke pours out of the walk in closet, just as Erik runs out of the room with Gabriel in his arms, bullet in Cobie's hand who stares around the room before walking out. Colson was about to walk away, to replace Aetos, when the doors to the walk in closet was pushed open and a woman in black stepped out.

She had on a black gown with an A-skirt, heels and a large black heart the covers half of her face, the net hiding the remainder, so Colson doesn't actually see her face.

"Who are you?"

"You haven't earned that knowledge." The woman says, her gloved hands folded in front of her. "Now come, we have much to do."